Taking Care of Children the Army Way

Children served: Ages 2 weeks through high school whose parents
are either in the military or who are civilian employees of the
military.

Average cost: Fees are based on the parents' income level and
range from $100 every two weeks for one child, $190 for two, and $90
for each additional child to $191 every two weeks for one child, $363
for two, and $172 for each additional child.

It is not yet 8 a.m. here on the largest Army installation east of
the Mississippi River, but Dagmar Peguero's day is in full swing. As
the director of the Child Development Center here Peguero is
responsible for about 240 children, ages 2 weeks to 5 years, who spend
their days at the center.

Her task is daunting, to say the least--and one made tougher on this
chilly day in late February by the fact that a professional
photographer has come to take photos of each age group. Amid questions
from parents confused by the change in routine and from the "ed techs,"
as the center's caregivers are called, Peguero manages to navigate the
window-lit halls with patience and grace. She stops several times to
comfort the occasional crying child, calling each one by name, speaking
to most in English spiced by her Puerto Rican heritage and to a few in
Spanish. Peguero is part of what has become, according to many in the
industry, one of the best child-care systems in the United States.

"The military has really been a pioneer in child-care issues," she
says, and she isn't being boastful. The government has spared no
effort--or expense--in making sure that the men and women who guard its
interests have access to high-quality care for their children.

Nestled into a quiet corner of the post, which is home to the 3rd
Infantry Division, and around the corner from a lot full of Iraqi tanks
captured in the Persian Gulf War, the Child Development Center is a
monument to the Army's commitment to child care. The building is
modern, efficient, clean, and bright--a far cry from many of the World
War II-era buildings elsewhere on the post. An industrially equipped
kitchen--off-limits to everyone except those who work in its
green-tiled confines--turns out two meals every day following
guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Next door in the
front office sit television monitors hooked up to cameras in the
ceilings throughout the building. This allows center staff to observe
children without intruding in the classroom, Peguero says, and parents
can come in to see what kind of care their children are receiving.
Videotapes of every minute of every day that the center is open are
kept in case of abuse claims.

The center is accredited by the National Association for the
Education of Young Children and is currently undergoing
reaccreditation. Everything is done by the book--Army Regulation
608-10, to be exact--and there is a Standard Operating Procedure, or
SOP, for everything.

The lead ed tech in each room must have an associate degree in
early-childhood education, and every caregiver must go through an
extensive background check before being allowed to work in the center.
Almost 50 hours of training are required of new caregivers, and this
training must be renewed periodically. But such a rigorous
certification process is worth the trouble to most of the center's ed
techs, for they are paid, Peguero says, at almost double the rate of
independent caregivers in nearby Savannah; starting pay is more than $7
an hour, and most of the caregivers earn more than $11 per hour.

As she walks into each room, Ms. Peguero points out ed techs who
have been employed by the Army's child-development services for 16, 20,
or even 25 years. And this continuity, she says, adds significantly to
the quality of care the center provides. In addition, because the
child-care practices used here are the same at each of the 172
child-development centers at Army posts worldwide, military families
have continuity in the quality of the child care available to them.

Such top-notch, state-of-the-art features, however, are anything but
old hat in Army child care. With the passage of the Military Child Care
Act in 1990, the Army set out to make its child-care offerings not only
affordable and dependable, but also of high quality. The services
provided by the Child Development Center are subsidized, and the
military families pay for them on a scale based on grade and rank. It
amounts to a lot of care for the money: "No longer do we offer simple
custodial care, where the parents can just feel secure that their
children are safe," Peguero says. "The children have opportunities to
learn here."

The center's curriculum is dictated by Department of the Army
guidelines but coordinated by Sharon A. Colmore and Bertha White, the
center's training-and-curriculum specialists.

"We try to provide the best setting in which a child can learn at
his or her own pace," explains Colmore, "and we concentrate on using
developmentally appropriate practices." Each room--except for those
occupied by the center's infants--is equipped with areas designed to
develop motor skills, social skills, cognitive skills, self-help
skills, and language expression. Signs in each room identify a
block-building corner, a science activity station, and dramatic play
areas.

Though some activities are planned, the children have the
opportunity to play and explore on their own. "We approach children's
learning through exposure, not drill," explains Gwen Hoffey, who along
with Leah Cabey is an assistant director of the center. Some parents,
she adds, don't understand that their child is learning even though
they are not being actively led in the endeavor. "We are not just about
school preparation," she says, "but about preparation for life as
well."

As comprehensive as the Child Development Center's offerings are,
the Army's child-care services extend well beyond its walls. To care
for older children up through high school age, the Army offers
school-age services at centers near the two elementary schools on the
post. These centers open early in the afternoon and provide
recreation--from video games to sports teams--as well as such
enrichment opportunities as music or dance lessons. Space and a few
computers are set aside for use by the older students to do their
homework.

Younger school-age children can also go to one of the 56 homes in
the Family Child Care program, which make up a major portion of the
child-care services on the post. These minicenters are run by wives of
military personnel in military housing under the supervision of James
F. Neal, the program's director. Each provider, who is paid directly by
the parents of the children she cares for, can have up to six children
of any age in her home at any one time. Each home--identified by a
Family Child Care plaque visible from the street--is set up in much the
same way as the rooms at the Child Development Center, with several
developmentally appropriate activity areas.

Much like the larger center, the family child-care program has its
own training-and-curriculum specialist, who visits the homes on a
regular basis. Caregivers must go through a rigorous training process
similar to that required of the center employees and, in addition, must
have their own emergency contingency plans. They prepare, and are
reimbursed for, two USDA-approved meals each day.

With the irregular working hours of many military personnel and the
ever-present potential of a rapid deployment, the Army must offer a
high level of flexibility in its child-care offerings. The home-based
services provide this flexibility, as caregivers working in their own
homes can more easily provide long-term or specialized care. Some homes
are designated special-needs homes, allowing the Army to provide more
intensive care for children who are physically or developmentally
disabled than it could in a large center setting.

The military philosophy in child care is that offering high-quality
care is in its own best interest. A happy soldier, after all, is a good
soldier. "If we can provide services that are superior to anything else
available, then the parents will feel secure that their children are
happy and can keep their minds on their jobs," says Linda A. Heifferon,
who, as the Child Development Services coordinator, oversees the Child
Development Center, the School-age Services, and the Family Child Care
Program. "At the heart of it, we are mission-oriented," she says. "Our
mission is to support the soldier."